House prices in the first quarter of 2015 were 2.6 per cent higher than in the final quarter of 2014 says the Halifax - down on annual figures posted earlier this year and comfortably below last summer's peak of 10.2 per cent.
However, the same index shows that house prices increased by 0.4 per cent between February and March this year, reversing a similar drop seen in the new year.
Martin Ellis, the Halifax's housing economist, says the market is buoyed by the recent return to real earnings growth for the first time in several years, very low mortgage rates and last December's stamp duty changes.
The rising level of house prices in relation to earnings should, however, curb house price growth and activity. The annual rate of house price growth, which has continued to ease in the first quarter of 2015, is forecast to end the year at 3.0 to 5.0 per cent he says.
Halifax says the average UK home in March this year cost £192,970; a year earlier the figure was £179,028.
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